Mine roof supports



March 1962 J. J. LAUNAY 3,023,862

MINE ROOF SUPPORTS Filed 0012. 19, 1.959 2 Sheets-sheet l FZ Z i March 6, 1962 J. .1. LAUNAY 3,023,862

MINE ROOF SUPPORTS Filed Oct. 19, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lldilll! 3,023,862 ROOF SUPPORTS Jean Joseph Launay, Monaco, Monaco, assignor to Applications Scientifiques, Techniques, Industrielles et Commerciales A.S.T.I.C. (Societe Anonyme Monegasque), a corporation of Monaco Filed Oct. 19, 1959, Ser. No. 847,191 Claims priority, application France Nov. 3, 1958 6 Claims. (Cl. 18936) Known forms of supports, particularly mine roof supports, comprise an upper part or capping member or arch and two lower parts, each end of the arch being fitted into the corresponding end of a lower part and slidably connected therewith by two assemblies formed generally of a stirrup and a yoke.

In some of these supports the arch and the lower parts are made of channel members of diiferent shape having large flanges which overlap appreciably when fitted together and are arranged so as to be in contact at the sides and bottom of the cross-sections excluding the flanges which always remain separated.

It is desirable that each of the assemblies employed for obtaining the sliding motion of the corresponding support member i.e., the lower assembly shall move integrally with the arch and the upper assembly shall follow the motion of the lower member of the support.

It has already been proposed to provide on the outer faces of the flanges at each end of the arch a transverse hearing or lodgment receiving the central web of the usual stirrup. The attachment of the upper assembly to the support has in particular been effected by means of clamping rings but these latter present the disadvantage of being difiicultly dismantled.

An object of the present invention is a support comprising not less than three relatively slidable section members fitting into each other the connecting assemblies of which follow the corresponding constituent, which avoids the abovementioned disadvantages.

Such a support comprising not less than one overlapping section member fitting over an overlapped section member and slidably connected by two assemblies each consisting of a stirrup and a yoke is characterized in that the flanges of the overlapping member project appreciably beyond the flanges of the overlapped member and have in the vicinity of their ends lateral notches receiving and holding the limbs of the locking stirrup.

This arrangement ensures the attachment of each assembly to its corresponding support member, the upper flange surfaces of the overlapped member being, of course, provided with lateral hearings or lodgments, and the whole being easily dismantled.

Some embodiments of the invention are illustrated as examples on the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings are partial views representing respectively in front and side elevation two assemblies connecting the arch to the lower part of a roof support in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on a larger scale, along the line IIIIII in FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along the line IV-IV of FIG. 3, g

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a variant form of the support members,

FIG. 6 is a similar view of another variant,

FIG. 7 is a sectional view, similar to FIG. 3, of another variant,

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of another form.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, C designates the upper member or arch of an arch-type mine roof support, said arch consisting of a channel member fitting at one end into a lower part P of the support which is also a channel mem- 3,023,52 Patented Mar. 6, 1962 her but of a ditferent shape. The two members C and P are slidably connected by two assemblies A A each formed in the present example by one stirrup and one yoke. The central web of the stirrup E is lodged in known manner in two bearings a made transversely in the upper surface of the flanges of the overlapped member C while the limbs of the stirrup E are arranged to fit in notches b (FIGS. 3 and 4) made in the flanges of the overlapping member P which last mentioned flanges project appreciably beyond the flanges of the overlapped member.

As will be apparent from FIG. 3, the two members C and P are in contact at the sides and bottom of the channels, and the flanges of the overlapping member P project appreciably beyond the flanges of the overlapped member C, which affords room for the passage of the limbs of the stirrup E In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the flanges of the overlapping member P are bounded by two planes parallel to the bottom of the channel, while the flanges of the overlapped member C which are much shorter, have a flat internal face parallel to the bottom of the channel and intended to make contact with the corresponding faces of the flanges of member P and an upper surface tapering towards the ends. The sides and bottoms of the two channel members bounded as in the present instance by plane surfaces, are nowhere in contact.

In the variant shown in FIG. 6, the upper surfaces of the flanges of the overlapping channel P converge towards the ends with the inner surfaces, while the lower surfaces of the flanges of the overlapped channel member C have of course a taper identical with the slope of the outer surfaces of the flanges of the overlapping channel member.

In these two examples (FIGS. 5 and 6) the bottoms of the channels of the members never make contact with each other, but it will be obvious that such a contact may be provided with a view to increasing the frictional adhesion of the two parts.

Compared with conventional mine roof supports embodying separate channel members, the arrangement in accordance with FIGS. 5 and 6 has the advantage of increasing the resistance of the upper member or arch to vertical loads and the resistance of the support to transverse loading.

According to FIG. 7, the support comprises channel members P the same as that in FIG. 3 and an arch C consisting of an H beam with unequal flanges whereof the lower flanges are slightly narrower than the bottom of each channel member P and the upper flanges are perceptively larger than the former but still narrower than the flanges of the overlapping channel member P and have a flat lower surface perpendicular to the web. The lower flanges of the overlapped members do not, in this example, make contact with the bottom of the channel.

It is desired to have frictional contact both between the flanges and at the bottom of the channels, the arch is suitably made of a cross-section according to C in FIG. 8.

What I claim is:

1. A mine roof support constituted by at least two partially overlapping mating sectional members having lateral flanges so designed that the flanges of one member extend parallel with the flanges of the other member in the overlapping zone and that the whole cross-sections of both members extend one inside the other on one given side only of said lateral flanges, the overall width, as defined by the outer edges of the flanges, of the outer member being greater than the overall width of the inner member, said members being connected slidably in longitudinal direction by two assemblies each consisting of said yoke, the central portion of one of said stirrups bearing flat against the outer face of the flanges of the inner member while its limbs are engaged in notches cut in the outer edges of the flanges of the outer member near the end thereof, and the central portion of the other stirrup being fitted in notches cut in the outer face of the flanges of the inner member near the corresponding end thereof, while the distance between the limbs of said other stirrup is substantially equal to the width of said outer member so that said other stirrup may freely embrace said last named member, whereby both stirrups are always held square to the longitudinal axis of said sectional members.

2. A mine roof support as defined in claim 1, wherein said sectional members are channel members the lateral Walls of which have their marginal portions turned outwardly so as to form said lateral flanges.

3. A mine roof support as defined in claim 2, wherein the lateral walls of both members are tapering by the same angle and in engagement with each other, while the lateral flanges of one of the said members are spaced apart a short distance from the lateral flanges of the other member.

4. A mine roof support as defined in claim 2, wherein the lateral walls of both members are tapering, the included angle of the lateral walls of the outer member being slightly smaller than the included angle of the lateral walls of the inner member, only the lateral flanges of said members bearing flat against one another.

5. A mine roof support as defined in claim 1, wherein one of said sectional members is a channel member Whose lateral walls have their marginal portions turned outwardly so as to form said lateral flanges of said one member, while the other sectional member has an H crosssection with flanges of unequal widths, the flange of smaller width being located in the bottom of the channel while the flange of larger width bears flat against the outer faces of the channel flanges.

6. A mine roof support comprising, in combination,

at least two partially overlapping mating channel members located in the overlapping portions thereof one into the other and each having lateral flanges on one side thereof extending parallel to each other with the flanges of the inner member overlapping the flanges of the outer member, the outer of said members having a bottom portion distant from and substantially parallel to said flanges thereof, the outer edges of the flanges of the outer member being spaced further from each other than the outer edges of the flanges of the inner member, the flanges of said outer member being formed at the edge portions thereof adjacent the free end of said outer memher with a pair of oppositely arranged notches extending substantially normal to said flanges partly into the same so that the distance between the innermost surface portions of said notches is greater than the distance between the edges of the flanges of the inner of said members and the flanges of the inner of said members being formed adjacent the free end of the inner member with aligned notches extending from the top surface of said flanges partly thereinto over the whole width thereof; and a pair of clamping means for connecting the overlapping portions of said channel members to each other slidably in longitudinal direction thereof and each including a U- shaped member and a flat bar-shaped yoke extending between and connected to the free ends of the leg portions of said U-shaped member and embracing together said channel members at said overlapping portions thereof with the flat yoke member abutting against said bottom portion of said outer member, the base portion of one of said U-shaped members being located in said aligned notches of said inner channel member and the leg portions of the other U-shaped member passing through said opposite notches of said outer member so that said two clamping means will respectively stay in fixed relationship to the end portions of said channel members during movement of the latter relative to each other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,185,916 Groetschel et al. Jan. 2, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS 646,020 Germany June 7, 1937 726,460 Germany Oct. 14, 1942 1,003,159 Germany Feb. 28, 1957 795,053 Great Britain May 24, 1958 

